Boston native Bob Margolin was born in 1949. Inspired by Chuck Berry, he started playing guitar at age 15 and immediately started performing in local rock and blues bands. Margolin was hired by Muddy Waters in 1973.

Muddy’s band toured the world and jammed with many great blues and rock musicians, “but the biggest thrill was playing Muddy’s Blues with him.” Muddy brought Margolin with him to special shows and recordings, when he sometimes didn’t use his whole band, to give him a familiar sound when working with other musicians. In 1975, they recorded Grammy Award-winning “Muddy Waters Woodstock Album”, Muddy’s last for Chess Records, which featured Paul Butterfield, and Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from The Band. In ‘76, Muddy brought Margolin with him to San Francisco to perform at The Band’s “Last Waltz” concert. Martin Scorsese filmed the concert for the classic film. “As it happened, only one camera was operating during our performance, zooming in or out, and since I was standing right next to Muddy, I was in every shot while he sang a powerful ‘Mannish Boy.'” Margolin also played on the four albums that Muddy recorded for Blue Sky Records, which were produced by Johnny Winter, and with Johnny on his Nothin’ But The Blues album. Three of those albums won Grammy Awards.

Margolin left Muddy’s band in 1980 and formed his own band. He relocated to Washington, DC then Blacksburg, Virginia — eventually winding up North Carolina in 1989. “All through the ‘80s I ran up and down the highways, mostly in Virginia and North Carolina. I was able to make a living without the pressures of the music business, and didn’t even feel any need to release an album. I was playing most nights with total musical freedom and no commercial considerations.” Periodically during those years, Margolin played a few high profile gigs — He appeared at the 1984 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, joining The Fabulous Thunderbirds for a tribute to Muddy Waters (with Etta James singing, and Taj Mahal and James Cotton opening.) His own band opened shows for Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Thorogood, Johnny Winter, and The T-Birds.

By the end of the ‘80s, the blues scene was going through big changes. “I realized that to continue making a living playing Blues, I would have to record and get back out on the worldwide Blues Scene and tour more widely.” In 1989, he recorded his first solo album “The Old School” for Powerhouse Records, owned by DC-based guitar wizard Tom Principato. Margolin’s second album for Powerhouse, “Chicago Blues”, released in ‘91, featured songs from three different recording sessions. In 1993, Margolin signed with Alligator Records and released his third solo album, Down In The Alley. “This was certainly the biggest ‘break’ I’d had in music since Muddy took me into his band twenty years before”. At the same time, he signed with Piedmont Talent, a Blues booking agency based in Charlotte, NC. The new album and Piedmont’s strong booking took Margolin all over the world and helped to reconnect him with an international Blues audience. By 1994, Margolin was touring hard and playing at many of the major blues festivals during the summer season. In August and September of that year, The Muddy Waters Tribute Band, featuring musicians who were in Muddy’s band when he was, went on a national tour with B.B. King, Dr. John, and Little Feat. In December of that year, they cut an album featuring the band and special guests from the Rock and Blues worlds. “You Gonna Miss Me, a Tribute to Muddy Waters” on Telarc Records was nominated for a Grammy Award in ‘96. Margolin released his second album for Alligator, “My Blues and My Guitar” in 1995 followed by 1997’s “Up & In”. Margolin appeared on a Kennedy Center Tribute to Muddy Waters in 1997, which featured Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, John Hiatt, G.E. Smith, Peter Wolf, Nick Gravenites, Keb’ Mo’, Big Bill Morganfield, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Charlie Musselwhite, Barry Goldberg, and Johnnie Johnson. A DVD, “A Tribute to Muddy Waters, King of the Blues”, was released the next year. Also in ’97, Margolin scripted and was featured in an instructional video, “Muddy Waters’ Guitar Style” for Starlicks Video. He released “Hold Me To It” on Blind Pig Records (1999) and “The Bob Margolin All-Star Blues Jam” in 2003 for Telarc. Margolin’s a founding partner in the VizzTone Label Group (formed in 2007) and has previously released 2 albums through the VizzTone Label – 2007’s “In North Carolina” and 2012’s collaboration with Mike Sponza “Blues Around The World”.

In 2016, Bob won two Blues Blast Magazine Awards, one as Best Male Blues Artist, and one for Best Traditional Blues Album for his new album, “My Road.” In 2013, Bob was nominated for The Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Blues Artist. He has won Blues Music Awards for guitar in 2008 and 2005.

Bob Margolin has played on several Grammy-winning recordings, won numerous W.C. Handy/Blues Music Awards for his playing and is a KBA Award recipient for Journalism. [In the early ’90s, Margolin began a second career as a music writer. In 2011, he released an eBook featuring the best of his writing — “Steady Rollin’ – Blues Stories, Snapshots, (Intentional) Blues Fiction.] He’s produced albums for numerous artists including Muddy’s son Big Bill Morganfield, Candye Kane, Pinetop Perkins, Mac Arnold, Ann Rabson and produced and consulted on reissues of Muddy Waters’ recordings for the Blue Sky Label for Sony/Legacy.

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Elektric Voodoo is a "World Beat Rock & Roll" band from southern California that blends classic afrobeat, latin, rock & roll, psych, jazz, blues and many other influences into it's own unique genre that tastefully straddles the line between modern and vintage.

The band started when Scott Tournet (founding member of Grace Potter & The Nocturnals) started writing new material after leaving the Nocturnals. "Musically I wanted to try something a little different than what I'd done before. I wanted to make music with an undeniable rhythmic pulse but I really didn't want to make computer driven dance music as these past few years that seems to be much of what I hear." To accomplish that, Tournet tapped into the rhythms of west Africa, Latin, and World music for inspiration. What came out the other side though was not just a world music project.

Tournet's old band, The Nocturnals, had a quite a successful career which saw them write, record, and perform with The Allman Brothers, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Taj Mahal, Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), Robert Plant, Mavis Staples, Bob Weir, and many more. Through these experiences Tournet became schooled in song craft, soul, pop, blues, and classic rock & roll. So when he began writing songs to go on top of these powerful world rhythms the influences from his past shone through. What the listener is left with is a very unique sound that while immediately is very danceable, also offers innovation, song craft, and melody. Elektric Voodoo is a band that can excite and exhaust a Saturday night audience while also engaging and challenging more focused listeners.

Boston native Bob Margolin was born in 1949. Inspired by Chuck Berry, he started playing guitar at age 15 and immediately started performing in local rock and blues bands. Margolin was hired by Muddy Waters in 1973.

Muddy’s band toured the world and jammed with many great blues and rock musicians, “but the biggest thrill was playing Muddy’s Blues with him.” Muddy brought Margolin with him to special shows and recordings, when he sometimes didn’t use his whole band, to give him a familiar sound when working with other musicians. In 1975, they recorded Grammy Award-winning “Muddy Waters Woodstock Album”, Muddy’s last for Chess Records, which featured Paul Butterfield, and Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from The Band. In ‘76, Muddy brought Margolin with him to San Francisco to perform at The Band’s “Last Waltz” concert. Martin Scorsese filmed the concert for the classic film. “As it happened, only one camera was operating during our performance, zooming in or out, and since I was standing right next to Muddy, I was in every shot while he sang a powerful ‘Mannish Boy.'” Margolin also played on the four albums that Muddy recorded for Blue Sky Records, which were produced by Johnny Winter, and with Johnny on his Nothin’ But The Blues album. Three of those albums won Grammy Awards.

Margolin left Muddy’s band in 1980 and formed his own band. He relocated to Washington, DC then Blacksburg, Virginia — eventually winding up North Carolina in 1989. “All through the ‘80s I ran up and down the highways, mostly in Virginia and North Carolina. I was able to make a living without the pressures of the music business, and didn’t even feel any need to release an album. I was playing most nights with total musical freedom and no commercial considerations.” Periodically during those years, Margolin played a few high profile gigs — He appeared at the 1984 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, joining The Fabulous Thunderbirds for a tribute to Muddy Waters (with Etta James singing, and Taj Mahal and James Cotton opening.) His own band opened shows for Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Thorogood, Johnny Winter, and The T-Birds.

By the end of the ‘80s, the blues scene was going through big changes. “I realized that to continue making a living playing Blues, I would have to record and get back out on the worldwide Blues Scene and tour more widely.” In 1989, he recorded his first solo album “The Old School” for Powerhouse Records, owned by DC-based guitar wizard Tom Principato. Margolin’s second album for Powerhouse, “Chicago Blues”, released in ‘91, featured songs from three different recording sessions. In 1993, Margolin signed with Alligator Records and released his third solo album, Down In The Alley. “This was certainly the biggest ‘break’ I’d had in music since Muddy took me into his band twenty years before”. At the same time, he signed with Piedmont Talent, a Blues booking agency based in Charlotte, NC. The new album and Piedmont’s strong booking took Margolin all over the world and helped to reconnect him with an international Blues audience. By 1994, Margolin was touring hard and playing at many of the major blues festivals during the summer season. In August and September of that year, The Muddy Waters Tribute Band, featuring musicians who were in Muddy’s band when he was, went on a national tour with B.B. King, Dr. John, and Little Feat. In December of that year, they cut an album featuring the band and special guests from the Rock and Blues worlds. “You Gonna Miss Me, a Tribute to Muddy Waters” on Telarc Records was nominated for a Grammy Award in ‘96. Margolin released his second album for Alligator, “My Blues and My Guitar” in 1995 followed by 1997’s “Up & In”. Margolin appeared on a Kennedy Center Tribute to Muddy Waters in 1997, which featured Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, John Hiatt, G.E. Smith, Peter Wolf, Nick Gravenites, Keb’ Mo’, Big Bill Morganfield, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Charlie Musselwhite, Barry Goldberg, and Johnnie Johnson. A DVD, “A Tribute to Muddy Waters, King of the Blues”, was released the next year. Also in ’97, Margolin scripted and was featured in an instructional video, “Muddy Waters’ Guitar Style” for Starlicks Video. He released “Hold Me To It” on Blind Pig Records (1999) and “The Bob Margolin All-Star Blues Jam” in 2003 for Telarc. Margolin’s a founding partner in the VizzTone Label Group (formed in 2007) and has previously released 2 albums through the VizzTone Label – 2007’s “In North Carolina” and 2012’s collaboration with Mike Sponza “Blues Around The World”.

In 2016, Bob won two Blues Blast Magazine Awards, one as Best Male Blues Artist, and one for Best Traditional Blues Album for his new album, “My Road.” In 2013, Bob was nominated for The Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Blues Artist. He has won Blues Music Awards for guitar in 2008 and 2005.

Bob Margolin has played on several Grammy-winning recordings, won numerous W.C. Handy/Blues Music Awards for his playing and is a KBA Award recipient for Journalism. [In the early ’90s, Margolin began a second career as a music writer. In 2011, he released an eBook featuring the best of his writing — “Steady Rollin’ – Blues Stories, Snapshots, (Intentional) Blues Fiction.] He’s produced albums for numerous artists including Muddy’s son Big Bill Morganfield, Candye Kane, Pinetop Perkins, Mac Arnold, Ann Rabson and produced and consulted on reissues of Muddy Waters’ recordings for the Blue Sky Label for Sony/Legacy.Type your paragraph here.

After spending much of the past year touring with the band Southern Hospitality, Damon Fowler is back with his third solo project for Blind Pig Records, Sounds of Home. Damon chose swamp blues master Tab Benoit to produce and record him at Tab’s rural Louisiana home studio, and their collaboration has resulted in Damon’s strongest effort to date. The tension between his measured, laid-back vocal delivery and the hallmark intensity of his guitar virtuosity has never been keener, and the stories told in his songwriting here – sometimes in collaboration with long-time writing partner Ed Wright and Benoit – exhibit a combination of depth, grace and humor very few of his contemporaries can match.

Damon sets the standard for what is to come on the first track, “Thought I Had It All.” It’s an introspective, brooding tale shot through with razor sharp, frenetic guitar leads. Other songs like the title cut and “Where I Belong” flow in an easy Southern groove. Damon offers up two covers, peppering Johnny Winter’s “TV Mama” with slithering slide guitar runs, and doing a great version of Elvis Costello’s “Alison.” The country tinged “Old Fools, Bar Stools, And Me” offers a poignant take on a familiar theme. “Do It for The Love” is a sweetly contemplative ballad featuring the lyrical counterpoint of Damon’s lead guitar and Tab’s pedal steel. The album closes with an inspired, finger-picked rendition of the traditional gospel song, “I Shall Not Be Moved.” As with Damon’s legendary live performances, Sounds of Home takes the listener on a tour through the rich traditions of American roots music, presented by one of its foremost practitioners.

Alongside his solo career, Damon joined forces with fellow guitarist JP Soars and keyboardist Victor Wainwright in 2011 to form the southern roots rock group, Southern Hospitality. SoHo quickly became a strong draw on the national circuit due to their early, roof-raising live performances and their first recording, Easy Livin’, on Blind Pig. Of their first show BluesWax said, “Southern Hospitality, after a single gig, has significant players in the blues world taking notice. Fowler, Wainwright and Soars share much love for the songs of the South. The hot jazz and funk of New Orleans, classic country, gospel, soul, and blues that became rock ‘n’ roll in Memphis and went global by way of a trucker named Elvis.” Hittin’ The Note called the album “a dozen potent shots of pure Southern pleasure. The roughneck, laid-back ways of this fine debut are reminiscent of the best days of Southern rock.” Damon has neatly managed to balance his participation in SoHo with his own, well-established solo endeavors.

On the strength of his hybrid of roots rock, blues, and sacred steel, the Florida native started wowing audiences with his musical exploits as a teenager, building a reputation as one of the hottest young players on the scene. Adding songwriting and vocal skills to his repertoire over the years has brought him many accolades, with critics extolling his originality and maturity as well as his technical guitar expertise. In 2008’s “Best of Tampa” poll, Creative Loafing magazine named him “Best Guitarist… And Slide Guitarist… and Lap Steel Player… And Dobro Player.” Fowler’s guitar work has been compared to Johnny Winter and Jeff Beck, while his slide guitar has a hint of the late Duane Allman. He can play fiery guitar runs with the best of them, but it’s his lyrical work on lap steel and Dobro that makes him stand out among the legions of guitar heroes.

Damon’s Blind Pig debut, 2009’s Sugar Shack, showcased a fresh and exciting rising star coming into his own as a performer and writer. Damon’s sparkling original compositions paired perfectly with well-chosen cover tunes from Billy Joe Shaver, Merle Haggard, and the Amazing Rhythm Aces. The critical reaction to its release was unanimously laudatory. The Chicago Sun Times proclaimed, “Make way for the next big-time guitar slinger, wire-walking Tampa, Fla., native Damon Fowler. This kid can play, garnering big raves for his power trio’s live shows. Even better, he shows no need to kill you with pyrotechnics on his major-label debut.”Hittin’ The Note said, “With this album, Damon Fowler is really just starting to open up shop, and I suspect he’ll be open for business for a long time to come,” while Billboard noted, “He’s a formidable slide guitar player, and has also mastered lap steel and dobro as well as electric guitar; his playing throughout the album is deft. Indeed, Fowler may be so skillful that he prefers pickin’ tasty to larger-than-life guitar heroics.”

In 2011, Blind Pig released Devil Got His Way, which went a long way toward fulfilling the tremendous potential that his acclaimed debut promised. His remarkable songwriting skills and vocal expressiveness were maturing, and his instrumental voice, by turns incendiary and deeply lyrical, got even stronger. The styles and moods of the songs on Devil Got His Way ran the gamut. The sharp title cut told a sordid tale, punctuated by furious slide guitar runs. “After The Rain” was a beautiful, meditative ballad. “Tight Rope” recalled the playful tone of Leon Russell’s version, without sounding derivative. From the swampy nighttime heat of “Cypress In The Pines” to the wistful, R&B feel of “You Go Your Way” to the ironically rock anthemic “American Dream,” Damon showed the uncanny ability to make all the flavors of American rock’n’roll uniquely his own. Like its predecessor, Damon’s second Blind Pig release garnered high praise from reviewers everywhere. As Living Blues put it, “Devil Got His Way is full of lyrically rich, confident songwriting and shimmering Americana-laced guitar. Fowler is as expressive a songwriter as he is a singer and instrumentalist. He’s preaching an otherworldly, Americana-themed gospel from a six-stringed pulpit. He is a roots guitar guru in the making.”

Damon Fowler’s star is on the rise. As Wade Tatangelo put it in a feature piece in March, 2013, in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, “Damon Fowler’s big, dimple grin cuts through the darkness as he stands outside the historic cottage he calls home in Bradenton Beach. It’s the same endearing smile he’s flashed on stages across the country and, in recent years, abroad, for nearly two decades. But these days, his smile shines just a bit brighter. In the past year Fowler has married, become a father and witnessed his music career reach new heights thanks to the formation of the super group Southern Hospitality.”

And to this list of accomplishments we can now add the release of a superb new recording, Sounds of Home.